The Preschool Health Education Program (PHEP) is a self-contained health education curriculum designed to develop positive health and safety behaviors in preschool children. Through this program, children increase self-awareness; learn what is good and bad for their bodies; learn behaviors to promote health and avoid harmful substances; and learn simple self-care behaviors for minor illnesses or injuries. The health education curriculum was developed at the Mary Moody Northern Center for Early Childhood Education in Galveston, Texas, and it is supported by a grant from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. The purpose of the grant is to: 1) identify factors in the preschool child's family and school environments that may influence the development of specific health behaviors, and 2) determine if a health education program can have an impact on children's health behavior at an early age. The major health problems today, such as heart disease, cancer, emotional stress, obesity, and accidents, are closely related to individual life style and health related behaviors. The purpose of a health curriculum for preschoolers is to develop a foundation on which subsequent health education experiences can build to encourage behavior and life styles that will promote health and reduce the risk factors that lead to disease or disability. If young children learn to value health and assume responsibility for their health, perceive that they are capable of performing positive health behaviors, and feel that they have some control over what happens to their health, they will be more likely to develop behavior patterns that will promote health. Prior to the PHEP project, there was no available health education curriculum for preschool children which focused on learning health behaviors and could be easily implemented into any early childhood education program. The goal is to make available to all early childhood education programs a carefully designed health education curriculum which has been field tested and demonstrated to be effective in accomplishing educational goals and objectives.